Last year I wore a running skirt and was too hot in my long-sleeved Santa Hustle tech tee. This year I wore tights, shorts, a tech tee, one of my Nike Element jackets, mittens, a balaklava, a hat, and a head-ear-band thing. I was pumped to get to run a December race in real December weather. It was much more wintery even than the A Christmas Story 10K I had run one week earlier.
On Sunday morning we got to Castaway Bay where the race starts shortly after 8:00AM. I peeled off my Yak Trax after seeing that the start of the race was free of snow. On our way into the hotel to keep warm a woman, who I'm pretty sure now was the race director, chatted me up for a minute about how diligently they had been working on plowing and salting the route to ensure it was clear. Joe and I then got inside, used the bathroom, stood around, and then made our way out to the start corral a few minutes before 9:00AM. The corral was divided into three waves but with no official estimated paces; a lady announced repeatedly that the front corrals were for "really fast people" but no one seemed to be listening, including us. We snuck our way up to the first wave, but we learned that it really wouldn't have mattered where we started. Before the gun start the race director emphasized that the route was clear, which was met with cheers from the crowd.
The first mile was relatively clear save for some slush. Right before we started crossing the Sandusky Bay on the Causeway the road was suddenly covered in packed-down snow. Most of us tried to run in narrow tire tracks that had melted down a bit from the lead runners, but with hundreds of people that got congested. At the end of the Causeway as we ran through the Cedar Point toll booths the route cleared, but not for long as starting at the parking lot we were again on top of packed snow. When we got out of the parking lot and onto Perimeter Road things got a little better, but we were still all trying to run in tire tracks.
Mile 1: 8:16
2: 8:19
3: 8:18
Eventually a plow came down Perimeter Road on the other side of the road so I ran over there for a while. Just like last year, I was pumped to run past and look straight up at Millennium Force's lift hill. Right after that the wind picked up and snow was blowing off of the bay and into my face. If you're not familiar with Perimeter Road, it's exactly as the name suggests: a road that runs along the perimeter of the peninsula, so we were running along a break wall that divides the road from the Sandusky Bay. Once I got back to Maverick the wind was less brutal until I could feel it at my back as I made the turn around Mean Streak. Right about there was where the packed snow made its return and I pretty much didn't see any asphalt again until mile 9ish.
This year the Santa Hustle folks took advantage of Cedar Point's PA and blared Christmas music throughout the park. The selection was kinda lame as it was mostly Jesus-y Christmas songs that could have put me to sleep if I weren't upright. What about Rudolph? Deck the Halls? Jingle Bells? Feliz Navidad? Last Christmas? Still, music was better than the silence from last year.
The mile markers shifted farther and farther from accurate starting in mile four, eventually being a solid half-mile ahead of where I actually was. This happened last year as well, so I was bummed that they hadn't figured out how to measure a course correctly and fix it. When my Garmin told me that I was at mile 7.49 I was allegedly at the mile 8 cookie station. Yes, the Santa Hustle has cookie stations. That cookie station was the best volunteer spot in the entire race. The boys had pulled the giant flags reading "COOKIE STATION" out of the ground and waved them frantically while they screamed at us runners to pump us up. Also, one high-fived me and told me to finish so that I could go home and watch the Browns. That was the last time I was excited prior to crossing the finish.
The middle 5 miles were significantly slower than I wanted to run because I'm weak and couldn't get my legs moving on all of the snow. Throughout those miles I couldn't stop thinking about how badly I wished I had kept my Yak Trax. Then I reconciled that I was in the middle of the park and thinking about it wasn't helping me at all, so I just tried my hardest to keep on moving. After so many miles so far from 8:00/mile I knew that I wouldn't PR, so I was just going to enjoy the scenery.
Mile 4: 8:14
5: 8:29
6: 8:51
7: 8:56
8: 8:44
9: 8:51
Perimeter Road on the way out of the park was way better than earlier in the race. Plows and salt had been through so there was way less slush. Unfortunately the parking lot was still covered in snow, but I distracted myself by thinking about the Santa hat lying on the ground that I had watched another runner toss off on the way into the park. I wondered if someone would retrieve it or if it would stay there to die and go where ever dead Santa hats go. Then there were the street cones on which someone had hung the Santa beards that runners abandoned. Deep thoughts.
The Causeway was again really bad. We were all running single file and occasionally I'd get a spurt of energy or I'd get annoyed running so closely behind others so I ran around them through the snow. After the bridge the road was clear, save for M&Ms that were spilled here and there along the road. I think the volunteers were giving them out, but I prefer to believe that it was reindeer or elf poop.
Somehow the mile 12 marker was where it should have been. I was relieved to know that I would indeed be running a true half marathon, unlike last year when I think it was 12.86ish miles. Simultaneously I was kinda annoyed because I had my hopes up that I would not have to run an entire 13.1. Again, thinking about it does nothing to help so I stopped doing that and just tried to run hard to make up for as much time lost on top of the snow as I could.
Mile 10: 8:22
11: 8:40
12: 8:48
13: 8:29
13.16: 1:12
Official time: 1:52:26
Joe came through the finish chute about a minute after me, we went into the hotel to warm up and check out the post-race party at which they were presenting the 5K awards, then we decided to head back to our hotel to warm up, get clean, and then hit the road for some lunch and home. Of note: We ate at Cheers in the Sandusky Mall. It, like the rest of the mall, is a complete dump, but the chicken wings were freakin' delicious. Also we had a couple of Great Lakes Christmas Ales. I am sad to admit that I like that beer now, although it's got nothin' on Maumee Bay Brewing Company Blitzen.
Later that afternoon on the way home I checked the race results to see where we finished in our age groups.
Lo and behold, I won my age group! I was far from a PR but still managed to beat the rest of the 25-29 females. It made me feel a lot better about how I handled the snow mentally and physically. I feel salty and kinda like a jerk for not staying for the half marathon awards ceremony, but I'm waiting now for the Santa Hustle folks to mail me my not-so-major award. It's a Santa Hustle coffee mug!
I hate to complain, but I have a handful about this race:
1.) The waves in the start corrals didn't do anything to help the flow of the race. Telling runners that a particular wave is for "really fast people" is not the way to get the race moving smoothly. For the first couple of miles I was fighting for gaps in the tire tracks to pass the runners who should have been in the later waves.
2.) Excluding the cookie people at mile 8, the volunteers sucked. Most water stations had a couple of volunteers holding over-filled cups with even more volunteers standing around, not even cheering on the runners. The course marshals who should have been warning us about slick patches were more concerned with socializing with one another. The water and cookie stations were being broken down when I was almost at the finish; given that I was the 83rd overall finisher, that left more than a thousand runners behind me who wouldn't get water or cookies.
3.) The Christmas music selection was depressing.
4.) The miles were inaccurately measured, just like last year except this year they at least corrected it in the final miles. This wasn't a big deal, but it irked me that some of them were up to a half-mile off.
5.) The race director announced at the race and the day before the race via e-mail that the route would be plowed and salted. Although I planned to run regardless (who signs up for a December race on a peninsula in northern Ohio expecting ideal conditions?), it would have been nice to have known that I should have worn my Yak Trax. I wonder if the race director had communicated directly with anyone in the city of Sandusky or in Cedar Point about the conditions of the course or if she just assumed that everything would be clear.
Now that I've complained I'm over all of it. I can't wait to run the Santa Hustle at Cedar Point again next year and I'm confident that the race director will correct all of the missteps.
